The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and other Matters) Amendment Bill has passed its first reading, it is now before the Finance & Expenditure Select Committee. They will be calling for submissions soon.

It is all very rushed because the Climate Change Ministry has been too slow in getting this legislation introduced. The Govt needs to pass this legislation before the end of the year because it is effectively cancelling changes to the ETS that will occur at the end of the year. Consequently the committee has to report back by 17th October. It may not hear many submissions verbally because of the time frame but it has to accept any submission sent in writing.

This is the link to the bill, if you want to make a submission you had better get cracking. I will let you know when they call fro submissions.

I will put our submission on the website when it is ready

Comments

I am most frustrated that we farmers are flat out being branded as carbon emitters and yet denied the right to credit for our sequestered carbon. I would be happy to accept this new tax for the good of the world we live in, if it ere fairly administered. Just because it was not part of the Kyoto talks does not make it wright to ignore it. We need massive scientific inputs to prove this angle is the only way forward.

Hi All
Thanks for this heads up. But on checking the link they are already calling for submissions and they close on Monday September 10.
I consider that to be a grossly inadequate time frame, and erodes the point of democracy, if we had any left to erode. Perhaps we should all suggest that the process is being conducted in indecent haste because of the slackness of the Ministry in organising the legislation in the first place.

You are right Neil, the Ministry is in a shambles, Smith leavibg is probably a factor there. They haven’t even got on to what to do post Kyoto. Personally for me the more shambolic the Ministry is the better. It will be interesting to see how much effort the Committtee put into hearing submissions.

If I was a gambler Robin, I would put my money on them paying not much attention at all. The legislation the Governmnt passed in 2009 to bring in the current version of the ETS was only going to have one day for submissions until ACT stirred things up, but that only got it extended to a few days and very few who wanted to speak got the chance.

I can’t quite recal which legislation it was, but just recently it appeared that the final report was being written before everyone had made their submissions!!

Hi Robin, I have just been reading the Straight Furrow Sept 4th in which AgResearch scientist Peter Janssen states that methane and nitrous oxide are considerably more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Would this be the reason for livestock emissions being multiplied to such a high factor rather than because they stay in the atmosphere for a longer period than carbon dioxide ?
cheers, Bruce

That is sort of right Bruce. The GWP (global warming potential ) of methane is going to be 24, N2O is about 300. What this means is that an emission of 1 tonne of methane has the same heat trapping effect as an emission of 24 tonnes of CO2 when the effect is averaged out over a 100 year time horizon. So 1 tonne of methane is quantified as 24 yonnes of CO2equivalent. The methane is all gone after 10 years but the effect it had in those 10 years is averaged over 100. If you change the time horizon the GWP changes. The shorter the time horizon the higher the GWP.

So hence the problem, 1 molecule of CO2 eaten by the cow in grass changing to 1 molecule of CH4 does not add any new carbon atoms to the atmosphere when released but it is said to add more CO2equivalents. Half of NZ’s emissions are in fact not any new greenhouse gas they are these theoretical CO2equivalents. There are more molecules in a tonne of methane than a tonne of CO2 so i tonne of CO2 converts to about 6 tonne of CO2equivalent if all the CO2 molecules change to CH4 (methane)

Of course it all cycles around, CO2 grows grass-cow eats grass- cow belches methane-methane oxidises to CO2and H2O- CO2 grows grass etc. and the only relevant issue is what is the net effect on the concentration of methane and the answer is none. Consequently the planet does not fry.because of enteric methane.